July 19, 2006

Unlike the rest of his junior class attending Prairie du Chien High School this past spring, Robert Forsythe was finished with classes by noon every day of the spring semester. However, that was because he was attending classes in Washington, D.C. where he served as a House of Representative Page.

According to the House of Representatives' Web site, the page program takes high school juniors to Washington, D.C. where they serve as a helper to the members of the House of Representatives. The students live, work and study as pages.

To become a page, Forsythe needed a member of the U.S. Congress to sponsor him. Paul Ryan did just that for Forsythe.

"Paul chose my application and forwarded it to the Speaker's office," Forsythe said. "My application was then chosen out of a pool of applications, which meant I would get to be a page."

Forsythe had earned the distinct privilege that only 65 other high school juniors from the United States would receive. Pages must be high school juniors and have at least a 3.0 GPA.

"I was very excited when I found out I had been selected," Forsythe said.

Forsythe left for Washington in late January. Upon arriving, he had little idea of what was in store for him over the next few months. During his time as a page, Forsythe was in charge of running pieces of legislation back and forth from members of the House of Representatives. He also ran vote results to wherever they needed to go and collected statements from congressmen.

"We got to see what went on behind the scenes, and we heard everything that was going on in the House," Forsythe said.

Besides working long hours as a page, Forsythe attended school in the Library of Congress. His classes, which began at 6:45 a.m., consisted of U.S. Government, History, Energy and Public Policy, Computer Ethics and International Relations.

"We had a full load of homework," Forsythe said. "It got a little stressful at times."

All of his classes he took during the program transferred back to his high school transcript.

While Forsythe's experience as a page came with a great deal of responsibility, he also found time to have fun.

"We got to attend the State of the Union Address and some of us got to meet the Vice President," Forsythe said. "We also took field trips to see the surrounding areas, such as Philadephia and Baltimore."

Forsythe returned home in June with no regrets of missing a semester at Prairie du Chien High School.

"I loved the experience, and I would do it again without question," Forsythe said.

Forsythe, who said he enjoys politics because, "they always effect us," plans on attending college at UW-Madison or Georgetown University.

"I don't have a major decided on yet, but I might like to do something with business or maybe someday work for the House of Representatives," Forsythe said.

Forsythe is the son of Mark and Kati Forsythe.

Just over twenty years ago, Greg Koether decided to quit growing row crops. Instead, he decided to try raising beef cattle on the food Mother Nature designed them to eat. Grass.

"My mother and dad were a big influence on me," Greg explains. He said that his mom had been encouraging him towards using less chemicals in his farming. Then, in 1984,he and his oldest son went to a workshop in southern Minnesota to learn more about sustainable farming practices. Greg was hooked, and so he began the process of planting windbreaks and converting to a grass-fed cattle operation.

Now he has his own herd of about 100 cattle, and he raises about 400 more each year on contract for other growers.

Last Friday about 30 farmers from around Iowa, southwest Wisconsin and southeast Minnesota gathered at the Koether's farm in Giard to tour the operation and learn more about the federal Conservation Security Program and the upcoming 2007 Farm Bill. The field day was sponsored by several non-profit sustainable agriculture organizations, including Practical Farmers of Iowa and the Minnesota-based Land Stewardship Project.

Participants gathered at the Giard Church, under the shade of a huge, spreading maple tree. In the cool shade, Greg introduced wife Kathy, his sons Greg and Scott (and his wife, Shannon) and daughter Kayla. Most members of the family participate in their own way to help run the farm. Even grandson, Will, 18 months old, goes along with parents and grandparents as they go about their work.

The tour began when everyone climbed aboard a couple of hay wagons to ride out to the fields. The Koethers' carefully tended pastures occupy about 500 acres of land, some they own, some rented. The farm's land rolls green and uninterrupted, except by cedar windbreaks.

The wagons stopped near a water tank with a curious herd of heifers following a short distance behind. Once the group stopped, Greg began answering a battery of questions, explaining his method of raising cattle. The pastures are fenced into about seven acre paddocks with planted windbreaks and piped in water. No cow has to walk more than 800 feet to get water. The cattle are allowed to graze the grass down until "they take the tops off," then they are rotated into another paddock. The only other feed the cattle get is a mineral supplement Greg mixes himself. They do not feed any grain, but the cattle do get hay in the winter. The cattle receive no antibiotic supplements. They are not kept in buildings at any time. Greg explains his cattle could be certified organic, but he hasn't gotten around to filling out the paperwork.

The farmers in the group wanted to know the details about how the automatic waterers work (they have a float valve that keeps the tanks full with very little trouble), and the water lines (plastic water lines that simply lay on top of the ground or buried six feet deep so they don't freeze). They get about 370 pounds of meat or more per acre, with a two to two-and-a-half pound gain per day. They use only 4/10 of a gallon of fuel per acre over a the summer season.

The Koethers' do not use any pesticides or herbicides on the pastures to control weeds. They use the natural grazing pressure of the herds and other animals such as their flock of sheep to graze down undesirable plants that cattle don't eat. In the pasture adjoining the one the group visited, brown and white sheep grazed under the watchful gaze of a white sheep dog.

Kayla helps manage two hundred ewes and lambs. They are an unusual breed, called Katahdin that were developed in Maine. They have a hair coat instead of wool, so they don't require shearing. This fall, they can sell the lambs at market to supplement their income. "You know, that's how Bo Peep got in business," Greg jokes.

What the Koethers' enjoy about their operation is that it gives them a chance to make a difference for the environment, to produce a superior product and to get paid well for doing it. Their farm is enrolled in the federal Conservation Security Program, which provides a subsidy payment for conservation practices.

Grass-fed beef has been proven to be lower in fat, higher in nutrients and healthful fatty acids than meat raised conventionally. There are not enough producers of grass-fed beef right now, so the demand is high. According to Greg, the profit margin is two to three times higher than for conventional beef. Most of the meat he raises is sold to Whole Foods, a national chain retailer of natural foods, and to Thousand Hills Cattle Co., which sells beef to Twin Cities area natural foods markets. Locally, the Koethers' also sell meat directly to anyone interested in it.

Improvements that were set to begin on three of Prairie du Chien's highly traveled railroad crossings will have to wait another week for construction to begin. Rodney Fishler, of the street department, said that the railroad linemen were unable to make the trip to PdC this week and will have to wait another week before beginning the three-week long project.

Construction is now set to begin Monday, July 24 on the Wisconsin St. crossing. On Tuesday, July 25, Iowa St. is expected to be closed as work begins on that crossing. The Blackhawk Ave. crossing will be closed the following week.

Detours should be expected.